Lemon Drop Kid Means $$$ To Some Local Folks At Otb

Some Locals Lost Belmont Bets, Too

HAMPTON — Stories of triumph, defeat and stuff in between amid the clouds of cigarette smoke and horse-racing fans at the Colonial Downs off-track betting parlor Saturday afternoon:

* Before Paul Saunders left for the OTB to watch the Belmont Stakes, his girlfriend had this piece of betting advice: Go with Lemon Drop Kid. Why not?

Talk about good fortune. Or, as Saunders called it, "lady luck."

It wasn't the biggest payoff of the day by any means, but Saunders collected $61.50 as the 29-to-1 longshot came on down the stretch to deny Charismatic a shot at the Triple Crown. His girlfriend, who picked up the paper Saturday morning and simply said, "Put $2 down on No. 6," was to get a nice dinner that night.

Saunders, a 1988 graduate of Kecoughtan High, where he played soccer, has only one regret.

"I wish I would have put $100 down," he said.

* Jerry Tolliver of Hampton does this a lot, so he's seen pretty much everything. That's why he can talk about losing $200 on one race in matter-of-fact terms.

Tolliver made about 35 bets on the Belmont Stakes, picking a variety of winners. Lemon Drop Kid, as you might expect, was not among them.

"Of the seven days out of the week," he said, "I come here about six days."

* As an OTB bartender, Desiree Martin usually gets pretty good tips. Saturday, she got a betting slip - for Lemon Drop Kid across-the-board. Since he won, that tip turned into a payoff of $98.10.

Vernon Gore is definitely one of her favorite customers - if he wasn't already, he certainly is now. He makes bets as tips every now and then. As for Lemon Drop Kid, Gore said he liked what he read about him in a racing publication.

* John Smith swears that's his real name, but considering he bet $20 on Lemon Drop Kid to win and collected $615 you might expect him to use an alias. Smith said he received a tip by telephone this morning. So - "just for the hell of it," he said - Smith put down $20 he figured to never see again.

Smith wouldn't say who gave him that piece of advice, but whoever it was has instant credibility.

* Aside from Smith, the biggest winners seemed pretty reluctant to talk about it. "Get away from me," said one, half-jokingly pulling his hat over his face. "You think I want my wife to hear about this?"

* Joe Leuschel of Cleveland and Joe Anelli of Newport News didn't do so well on the big race, but the cleaned up earlier in the day. "We've been playing exactas all day and we're up about three- four hundred," Leuschel said. "Not bad."

Anelli called himself "the sane one" of the duo. "If it wasn't for me," he said, "he'd be in here without his pants and with no car."